With the help of a number of local businesses, the Rotary Club of Demerara yesterday erected a billboard in the compound of the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) to reflect its ‘Gift of Life’ programme.
The programme allows for children under the age of 18 with defective hearts to go to overseas for corrective heart surgery free of cost and has so far sent five children for surgery. The New Market and East Street entrance of the GPH was chosen as the billboard site as it is a prominent spot to highlight the programme.
According to Patrick De Groot, vice president of the club, to be eligible for the programme the doctor of the affected child must provide a letter stating the problem along with an electrocardiogram (ECG) of the heart. These are then sent to Gift of Life International in the US where the case is reviewed by a team of doctors who decide whether the
